Kimel Western Six back from the dead

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mogunner
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Kimel Western Six back from the dead

Post by mogunner »

Neighbor brought this over a couple years ago to see if I could fix it. After a quick inspection I found that there were some parts missing and other parts boogered up that would need replaced as well. I spent a few weeks searching online looking for parts, but there was literally NOTHING available. Some Heritage parts fit, others didn't. He told me to keep it, it was given to him and he just wanted to get it checked out. It's a Western Six .22LR manufactured for Kimel Industries. From what I can find, Kimel was formed in 1967 and no real firm date as to when it was dissolved. It was in pretty sad shape overall.

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A couple weeks ago I got a notice from Ebay that new items had been found for a search that I had done, and up popped a lot of Kimel parts that had all the hard-to -find parts that I needed. Waited until the last minute and put my max bid in, which was higher than I really wanted to put into a $100 max gun, but you know how it is... the only thing was that I had pretty well figured it to be a wall-hanger, so had bead blasted it and painted it a nice semi-gloss black, which now had to be stripped!

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The only thing I really had to figure out was how to repair the screw hole for the bolt'trigger spring screw. Someone had drilled the 4-40 threaded hole out to 1/8", with what intentions I have no idea. So I drilled it out even further and threaded it for a 10-32 stainless steel insert that has 4-40 internal threads and epoxied it in place then filed it down flush.

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Then I polished all the aluminum parts and blued all the steel parts.

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Final step was a new stainless Heritage hammer and the spring for the cylinder advancement hand, luckily the Heritage parts fit and were available. Here it is, all together.

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Took it out today and ran several different ammo manufacturers through it, the CCI Mini-Mags gave me the best group at 20 yards.

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Always great to bring one back from the junk box, even one that's not a collectible or worth a bunch of money!
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millman
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Re: Kimel Western Six back from the dead

Post by millman »

Cool! Good job.
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SA1911a1
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Re: Kimel Western Six back from the dead

Post by SA1911a1 »

I am impressed. What a great save!
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locomotiveguy
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Re: Kimel Western Six back from the dead

Post by locomotiveguy »

I love the basket case resurrection good job!
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Junk Yard Dog
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Re: Kimel Western Six back from the dead

Post by Junk Yard Dog »

:thumbsup: :thumbsup: :vcool:
Leave it as it is. The ages have been at work on it and man can only mar it.
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slcampbell
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Re: Kimel Western Six back from the dead

Post by slcampbell »

Great job.
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mogunner
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Location: Central Eastern Southern Missouri

Re: Kimel Western Six back from the dead

Post by mogunner »

What's ironic as just a few days before I was notified of the parts being put on ebay, I was actually in the process of taking the pistol and fabricating it into a shifter for the 4wd on my old K10. I had the spare shifter cut down, the housing painted and mocked up, then at the last minute, with the welder at the ready and fired up, decided not to as some of the pieces that would have to be installed first were plastic and I was concerned that it would look like crap without them,so tossed the pistol back into the drawer.
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Re: Kimel Western Six back from the dead

Post by Ironnewt »

A lot of work went into that. A good job was done by you.
Damn, I'll bet that's going to leave a mark! Probably hurt too!
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kjohn
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Re: Kimel Western Six back from the dead

Post by kjohn »

Very nice! Smart looking old revolver.
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